Eanger Irving Couse on the

Steven L. Grafe

Eanger Irving Couse on the Columbia River

anger Irving Couse (1866–1936) was an American painter who is well known to Western art aficionados. As the first president of the Taos Society of Artists and one whose works graced numerous Santa Fe Railway promotional cal- endars, he is generally associated with northern New Mexico and Pueblo Indians.E His reputation is also tied to work done in and rural France but he spent several years working near the Columbia River in rural south-central State and painted his first Indian subjects there. Couse lived and worked on a ranch belong- ing to his wife’s parents in 1891–92, 1896–98, and during the summers of 1901 and 1904. The resultant paintings are little known and poorly understood, in part because the Indians and geography he recorded are not well-known to the American public.

In October 1887, a little more than a year after arriving in Paris, Couse had the good fortune to meet another expatriate American art student, Virginia Jane Walker (1860–1929). She was from far-off Washington State. In 1845, her father, Wellington Bolivar Walker (1824–1904), had left Missouri and crossed the Plains to Oregon with his brother. They settled in the Willamette Valley but Bolivar returned to Missouri in 1847 to help another brother come west. Their 1848 wagon train included the John Purvine family from Illinois. The Purvines also settled in the Willamette Valley and in 1850, Wellington Bolivar Walker, 1891, oil on Bolivar married Catherine Josephine Catherine Purvine Walker, 1891, oil on canvas, 16½" x 13¼"; Courtesy of Virginia canvas, 16" x 13½"; Courtesy of Virginia Couse Leavitt Purvine (1829–1901). Couse Leavitt

1 Eanger Irving Couse Studio at the Walker Ranch, c. 1896; Courtesy of the Couse Family Archive

Bolivar and Catherine Walker Kibbey Whitman Couse with had seven children. Five of them Virginia Walker lived to adulthood and Virginia Jane Couse in the Window Seat, was the fourth of these. In 1867, Couse Studio, Walker Ranch, the family left western Oregon in c. 1898; Courtesy hopes of finding a healthier climate. of the Couse They relocated to eastern Klickitat Family Archive County, Washington Territory, and an isolated ranch that was located on Chapman Creek, about eight miles northwest of present-day Roosevelt, Washington. They purchased the land and an additional 150 acres at the creek’s confluence with the Columbia River from Joseph and

2 Eanger Irving Couse on the Columbia River Unknown Columbia River Plateau artist, Toy Cradle, c. 1880s, buckskin, glass beads, cloth, hair and board, 17" x 6¼" x 2¼"; Courtesy of The Couse Foundation This toy cradle was part of Couse’s collection of Indian objects and it appears in photos of the interior of his New York Indian Man in the Couse Studio, Walker Ranch, c. 1892; Courtesy of the Couse Family Archive City studio.

Jane Chapman, the white settlers a severe 1889 blizzard and—at the River was much easier than making who had first claimed it. Among urging of Virginia’s brother, Fisk— the thirty-mile overland trek to the other amenities, the property was raised sheep after that. The Walkers county seat, Goldendale, Washington. home to eight-year-old apple and wintered their sheep herds near the Arlington had been established as peach trees. Bolivar’s interest in Columbia River and took their animals a hub for shipping cattle down the the enterprise was shared with to summer pasture in the Cascades Columbia River and it was not incor- Catherine’s younger brother, Nelson Mountains. The income from livestock porated until 1885. Its surrounding Purvine (1835–1911). was supplemented by the sale of fruit. landscape was harsh, with frequent Although the bulk of the Walker This produce was valued because white wind and sand storms. Vegetation was Ranch was just three miles north of settlers had not lived in the region scarce and alkali was so abundant that the Columbia River, the surround- long enough to plant many orchards. the village was originally founded as ing country received only about ten Much of their crop was sold across the “Alkali.” By the 1890s, the settlement inches of rain a year. The aridity made Columbia River in Arlington, Oregon, had about three hundred residents, it impossible to farm and so they were which was accessible by ferry. The many of whom were the families of cattle ranchers. The Walkers had a Walkers collected their mail, freight local farmers and ranchers who lived small dairy and were known for mak- and visitors in Arlington because a in town during the winter so that ing the best butter in the region. They three-mile trip down Chapman Creek their children could attend school. In lost much of their livestock during and across the undammed Columbia the summer months the town was the

3 The Captive, 1891, oil on canvas, 491/16" × 60¼"; Collection of Phoenix Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Read Mullan and others, by exchange, 1994.7 This painting was Couse’s first major work with an American Indian subject. It was displayed in Portland in November 1891 and again in the 1892 Paris Salon (Société des Artistes Français). Virginia Walker Couse here posed in the same dress and shoes she later wore in Decision, The Crossing Back to the Barn. heart of regional agricultural activity parents—when she wrote, “It is a girls’ school in Portland, Oregon. with farming and ranching supplies, sacred spot with me. It is where all From there, Virginia attended the produce, wool and livestock moving my love and dearest associations Philadelphia School of Design for through town on their way to various centered for so many years of my Women and the National Academy destinations. life that I don’t think I can ever get of Design in New York. When Couse Virginia Walker had moved to over the feeling I have for it and the met her in 1887, she had been in the family ranch as a seven-year-old desire to go back there.”1 Paris for less than a month. She was and her heart strings were firmly Although living in relative isola- studying at Académie Colorossi and tied to the place—both because tion, the Walkers valued learning hoping to find a career as an illus- of the people who lived there and enough that both Virginia and her trator. Following several more years because of its landscape. These feel- older sister Frances or “Fan” (1858– of study, Virginia was forced to give ings were poignantly articulated in 1928) received secondary educa- up the idea of becoming an artist 1905—after the death of both her tions at St. Helen’s Hall, an Episcopal because of poor eyesight. After her

4 Eanger Irving Couse on the Columbia River artistic aspirations ended, she proved desirous of painting an historical The couple arrived in eastern to be an advocate for her husband picture for the [1892 World’s Klickitat County in late June 1891, and a promoter of his career. Columbian Exposition in and the Walkers began building their Eanger Irving Couse and Virginia Chicago]. I want it to be strictly son-in-law an atelier. The studio Jane Walker were married in Paris in American, and perhaps Indians. was constructed using a plan Couse September 1889. Six months earlier, From what Virginia says, the based on farmhouses he had seen Virginia had written to her parents west seems to be just the place to in France. Its walls were built of and said: study them. I want to get among volcanic rock that was carried from How I would love to come home them and do the studying very an eroding cliff near Chapman Creek. in the summer & see you all. If seriously, as conscientious work When completed, the structure was we prosper a year from this sum- is the only road to real success. nearly two stories tall and boasted a mer we will come. Mr. C and I So we shall possibly come west in large, sloping, north-facing window, had such a long talk about you a couple of years, as I must have a window seat in its west end and a this morning. I was telling him plenty of time to paint the picture large fireplace. Virginia told Fan: all about the ranch. He thinks and have it completed.3 Father is having such a nice large he could paint some fine pic- In September 1890, Virginia studio fixed for Mr. Couse, it will tures out there. . . . Are there any wrote that Couse “wants to do a be finished this week & we will Indian camps around now or are startling Indian thing” but their be moved in. We are going to they all gone? Mr. Couse wants planned summer 1891 trip to the sleep & live in it . . . We will still to paint some Indian pictures.2 Walker Ranch became an on-again, take our meals [with our par- Couse himself weighed in on the off-again affair. However, in March ents]. They have taken the gra- matter shortly after the wedding. He 1891 they determined with certainty nary and extended it out to the wrote to Fan: to make the trip, anticipating that smoke house, so you see how big I love Paris and it will seem like Couse would “paint seriously” and it will be.4 parting with an old and valued devote his energies to completing a Although a proper work space was friend to go, but I am very work for the 1892 Paris Salon. becoming available, Indian models

Columbia River near Arlington, 1891, oil on canvas, 16" x 36"; Courtesy of Coburn L. Grabenhorst, Jr. Columbia River near Arlington was among thirty paintings included in Couse’s 1891 Portland exhibition. It shows his love of “twilight effects with a full moon.” 5 proved difficult to procure. Soon after he never got over the fact that south and north into the Columbia arriving, the Couses visited both the his soul was lost.5 River were generally related to each Umatilla and Yakama Reservations The Indians Couse had come to other through culture, language and looking for Indians who would pose. paint had enjoyed a rich history for marriage. Despite treaties negoti- The paucity of models was partially generations before his arrival in the ated in 1855 that assigned them due to local Indian beliefs. Couse Middle Columbia River region. Celilo to the distant Yakama and Warm later recalled: Falls—on the Columbia just thir- Springs Reservations (120 miles I used to try to paint their ty-five miles downstream from the to the north and southwest), they camp. The Indian has a super- Walker Ranch—was home to one pursued a seasonal round that saw stition that if they leave their of the most important fisheries in them periodically leave the river and picture after them when they Native North America. The area sur- travel to other locations to harvest die they will be eternally rounding the falls had been home diverse root foods, plant products, damned—they will never see to one of the continent’s premier berries and to hunt large game.6 the Happy hunting ground. So aboriginal trading centers. These groups included the Walkers’ they objected to my painting The peoples living near the ranch near neighbors on Pine Creek (a them. Finally I got a model, but on the small tributaries that flowed dozen miles east of the ranch) and Rock Creek (ten miles west), as well as the Wishxams and Klikitats who lived downstream in Washington and the Wyams, Teninos and Wascos in Oregon. Couse referred to most of these peoples as “Klikitats” because that was a vernacular term that was used by outsiders who could not identify the nuances separating dif- ferent but related regional Indian populations. The lack of proper models encour- aged Couse to rely on photographs, something he had not done before arriving in Washington. While liv- ing there he borrowed a camera and the resultant images not only inform his subsequent paintings, they also provide a window into the diverse activities that surrounded his artistic pursuits—the growing and harvesting of vegetable and flower gardens, caring for sheep and cattle, the comings and goings of transient Indian communities and quiet family moments. During his first months at the ranch, Couse worked in an outbuild- Matthew P. Deady, 1891, pencil on paper, 14¼" x 12¼"; Courtesy of Virginia Couse Leavitt ing and produced a seminal work, The The current whereabouts are known for only one of the portraits that Couse painted in Portland in 1891–92. This preliminary sketch preceded the finished portrait of Judge Captive. Virginia served as a model for Matthew Paul Deady that now hangs in the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse. one of the two pictured characters.

6 Eanger Irving Couse on the Columbia River Decision, The Crossing Back to the Barn, 1892, oil on canvas, 26" x 31"; Courtesy of The Couse Foundation

In September 1891, she wrote to her nearby home of two Catholic priests. of the day and early evening. Shortly sister, “The big picture is coming on Once there, her days were spent before her 1889 wedding, Virginia splendidly [and] will soon be finished. with the priests but she was forced wrote to her sister about a work Couse I am posing all the time now so I don’t to spend her nights with Five Crows, was planning to paint in Brittany say- have much time for anything.”7 a Cayuse leader who had long had ing, “He loves twilight effects with a The Captive recreates a scene from hopes of securing a white woman as a full moon.”8 This interest was evident the aftermath of the November 1847 wife. Bewley’s ordeal lasted for several in works that were hung in the 1889 killings at the Whitman Mission at weeks, until representatives of the Paris Salon—Moonlight and The First Waiilatpu, Washington, where Cayuse Hudson’s Bay Company ransomed Star. Twilight motifs are also common Indians attacked Protestant mission- her and other captives. in the Columbia River paintings he aries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman Many of Couse’s 1891–92 paint- executed during the intermittent span and others. Several days later, seven- ings show landscape and Indian sub- of years he spent on the Walker Ranch. teen-year-old captive, Esther Lorinda jects at twilight. This was consistent As the summer of 1891 faded Bewley—although ill—was taken with his longstanding interest in the to fall, the Couses made plans to from the mission station to the effects of light during the late hours move downriver to Portland. While

7 met the artist before his wife’s fam- five “Decorative Designs.” The exhibit ily did. Her contacts included friends inventory included several rural she and Frances had made while French subjects, The Captive, a portrait attending school at St. Helen’s Hall of Mr. Trevett, and more than a dozen and others that Frances met after other Indian images. Nearly half of marrying Charles Tilton Kamm these—including Columbia River near (1860–1906), the only son of one of Arlington—were of Indian camps with Portland’s wealthiest families. either canvas tipis or mat lodges. In Virginia had invited potential keeping with Couse’s interest in twi- Portland patrons to Couse’s Paris light subjects, the exhibition included studio and encouraged them to see works titled Moonlight, The Last Rays his work in the Salons and the 1889 and Indian Camp, Evening. It also con- Paris International Exposition. Her tained small paintings inspired by the letters to Fan included news items environment at the Walker Ranch: describing her husband’s career Oregon Peaches, Hollyhocks and In the successes—paragraphs that were Garden. The five “Decorative Designs” Head of Northwest Indian, c. 1892, oil on forwarded to the Oregonian news- were samples of designs the artist canvas, 12" x 9"; Courtesy of the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western paper. Virginia also maintained an could apply to architectural interi- Art, Indianapolis active correspondence with Portland ors, should any wealthy homeowners friends and these efforts provided desire them. Unfortunately, Couse living as a single woman, Virginia Couse with an enviable entrée into secured few, if any, home decorating had sought out Portland friends Portland society. commissions during his Portland stay. and acquaintances who were visiting A November 7, 1891, exhibition of The exhibition in the Trevett Paris. Even before her wedding, she Couse’s work at the Portland home of home occurred only three weeks included Couse in this ever-changing Theodore Brooks and Mary Bancroft after Couse arrived in Portland and social circle and some Portlanders Trevett featured thirty paintings and the portrait of Theodore Brooks Trevett (1832–1901) was the first of seven that he painted in the city. His second portrait was a large image of Judge Matthew Paul Deady (1824– 1893) that is still on display in the city’s Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse. Deady was Oregon’s first U.S. district court judge and he sat on the federal bench in Portland for more than three decades. Another judicial portrait captured the likeness of Judge Erasmus Darwin Shattuck (1824–1900). Like Deady, Shattuck had been a member of the Oregon Constitutional Convention in 1857. He was a former Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court and a long-time circuit court judge. Portland lawyer Parish Lovejoy

Klickitat Indian and Tepee, 1891–92, watercolor on paper, 15" x 20½"; Courtesy of the Willis (1838–1917) sat for a portrait Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art, Gift of the Kemper Foundation in early 1892. Couse called him “a

8 Eanger Irving Couse on the Columbia River Plateau Indian Couple, c. 1890s; Courtesy of the Couse Family Archive Unknown Columbia River Plateau artist, The woman in this photograph is carrying a beaded bag that eventually found its way into Beaded Bag, c. 1880s, buckskin and glass Couse’s personal collection of American Indian items. beads, 19" x 8" (exclusive of handle); Courtesy of The Couse Foundation great friend of ours” who had previ- Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme successful Portland businessman ously helped the artist invest a sizable Court. Mrs. Watson was a friend who who was also an active proponent portion of his savings. Couse also maintained a correspondence with of the Oregon National Guard. The created a likeness of Lee H. Hoffman Virginia and who had visited her painting was commissioned for the (1850–1895), owner of a construc- during an extended 1888 European First Regiment Armory in downtown tion company that built the original trip. She was also the person who Portland. Morrison Bridge—Portland’s first suggested that Couse offer a painting During his months in Portland, bridge across the Willamette River. class during his Portland stay. Couse maintained a studio in the Only one of Couse’s Portland por- The final Portland portrait was Trevett home. He also taught regu- traits was of a woman. Eleanor Kubli completed in August 1892. Its sub- lar painting classes in the downtown Watson (1859–1944) was the wife ject was Colonel (later General) studio of Katherine Lucy Trevett of a lawyer who was also a former Charles F. Beebe (1849–1922), a (1866–1955). Lucy had visited the

9 the month of May. A full or gibbous moon is visible in the distant sky. According to family tradition, the painting is an allegory for a decision the artist and his wife faced when considering their future. Virginia appears as herself and White Prince represents Couse. The pause taken to choose which direction to turn after crossing the stream is representative of their need to decide if they should stay at the ranch or return to Paris. After more than a year in the Pacific Northwest, the Couses returned to France in the fall of 1892. The Captive was shown in that year’s Société des Artistes Français Salon. That same November, a box containing Couse’s fledgling collection of American Indian objects arrived in France.

In the Trees, 1896–98, oil on canvas, 24" x 29"; From the collection of George W. Shane, Jr., Virginia wrote, “Mr. Couse takes a lot Collection of Maryhill Museum of Art of pleasure in his Indian things.”9 The Couse claimed that he originally “painted Indians for my amusement as there was no items were soon put to use as the art- market for Indians at all.” He began painting pastoral imagery in Washington in 1896–98. In general, he made field studies before returning to his studio to create finished works. ist began painting Mourning the Chief

Couses in Paris and studied art while there. There were twenty pupils in the Portland painting class, all of them women. Julia Christiansen Hoffman (1856–1934)—the wife of Lee H. Hoffman and an important figure in the history of art in Portland—was included in this number. The Couses returned to the ranch in the spring of 1892, and the artist finished his studio interior and resumed painting Indian subjects. He also painted Decision, The Crossing Back to the Barn, a work that shows Virginia leading the Walker family’s pet horse, White Prince, across Chapman Creek. The painting—with its Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis) and Gray’s biscuitroot (Lomatium Pastorale with Sheep, 1896–98, oil on canvas, 18" x 21¾"; Courtesy of the Couse Family Many of Couse’s Washington State sheep paintings do not suggest specific landscapes. grayi) in bloom—suggests a scene Others include details that place them on the Walker Ranch. The artist’s studio and its that would have occurred during adjacent grove of trees appear here in the distance.

10 Eanger Irving Couse on the Columbia River Logging, Cascade Mountains, Washington, 1896–98, oil on canvas, 24" x 29"; Courtesy of the Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture & Lifeways, Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan; Gifted by the late Caleb E. Calkins of Flint, Michigan Couse observed logging scenes like this one while accompanying Walker Ranch sheep to their summer pastures near Mt. Adams. of the Tribe—the only Indian paint- ing he ever attempted in Paris. Although Virginia had peren- nial hopes of going home again, the Couses did not return there until beginning a two-year stay in 1896. They had lived in Etaples, on the northern coast of France, in 1893– 1896, and a son, Whitman Kibbey Couse (1894–1978) was born to them there. During his initial stay at the Walker Ranch, Couse was plagued by an inability to secure models and the Klickitat Medicine Man, 1898, oil on canvas, 45" x 31"; Courtesy of the Colorado Springs situation was much the same during Fine Arts Center, Debutante Ball Committee Purchase Fund. FA 1985.1 The basket the left foreground of this painting was among the items in Couse’s collection his second visit. He nonetheless con- of Indian objects. tinued painting Indian subjects but also began producing pastoral scenes that included sheep. He said: I could do nothing without it. Some of Couse’s sheep paintings In painting the sheep, I followed We were gone about 10 days, up do not depict specific landscapes. them in a wagon from the ranch, near Mt. Adams, about 12,000 Others, like Pastorale with Sheep, my wife’s uncle driving the team feet high. This was in the sum- include details that definitively place and we camped. . . . There was mer and on the government them on the Walker Ranch. This par- wife, her uncle and I. I had all reservation. They got a sheep ticular work shows Couse’s studio my painting things, a sketching permit to graze a certain num- and the adjacent grove of trees in the easel, box and white umbrella. ber of sheep on the reserve.10 distance. Logging, Cascade Mountains

11 probably dates to this same period and captures activity that the artist observed while accompanying the Walker herds to their summer pas- ture near Mt. Adams. One of Couse’s Indian paintings from 1898 provides insight into the artist’s representations of his Indian subjects. Klickitat Medicine Man shows a man with a bare and painted chest standing before a small fire. The figure is not meant to make an ethnograph- ically accurate statement but instead reveals Couse’s classical aesthetic and academic training. The “medicine man”—along with other male figures he painted while living in the Pacific Northwest—is in a state of undress that is beyond the boundaries of how local Indian men would have Klickitat White Prince, 1898, oil on canvas, 49¾" x 60⅞"; Private collection of Frank and appropriately appeared at the end of Susan Jackson the nineteenth century. Plateau men Klickitat White Prince was painted in Washington State in 1898 and shown in the spring 1899 Paris Salon (Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts). from the period are almost univer- sally seen in heavy or layered clothing when formally or informally posed or in cotton shirts when necessity demanded lighter garments. Bare legs are also unusual, with leggings being preferred over trousers. The Couses left the Walker Ranch for New York in October 1898. Although they did not return to it for several years, it figured promi- nently in their thoughts—especially in those of their young son. Virginia wrote to her parents from Etaples in summer 1900 and said: Whitman & I are always talking about you. I told you his favor- ite game is to play going to Grandpa’s. He has a boat and we cross the ocean—the Studio floor—then we take the cars in New York and we go across to Virginia Walker Couse, White Prince and Tent, c. 1898; Courtesy of the Couse Family Archive White Prince was a gentle horse that was a favorite with the Walker Ranch’s children Arlington and you meet us there and adults. Couse rode him for fun and also used him as a model. He is shown here and we go out home. Have hot posing with the artist’s wife. This photograph was used to construct the 1898 painting, Klickitat White Prince. cakes and chicken to eat. Then he

12 Eanger Irving Couse on the Columbia River Unknown Columbia River Plateau artist, Boy’s Shirt, c. 1880, buckskin, glass beads, wool cloth and yellow ochre, 34" x 22½"; Courtesy of The Couse Foundation The beaded designs on this shirt are done in what is commonly called the “Transmontane” style. Geometric beadwork of this type was made by both Columbia River Plateau peoples and the Plains-dwelling Crow Indians. “Transmontane” refers to the fact that the style was shared by groups living on both sides of the Rocky Mountains.

In New York again, Virginia made work. Someone told him about a plans to return to the ranch the fol- place called Taos out here where lowing summer. Unfortunately, when he could find lots of Indians spring 1902 arrived, her brother Fisk who would pose as a number of and his wife—caretakers of Bolivar artists had been out here before Walker—moved him and them- so we started out . . . We don’t selves from Chapman Creek to a know at all how we are going

Leleshut, Chief of the Klickitats, c. 1898, farm near Waitsburg, Washington. to like it there but hope we will oil on canvas, 45½" x 25½"; Courtesy of Despite being concerned that her find all the sheep and Indians we Liliane and Christian Haub Uncle Nelson would “never want to want. The landscape is exactly see us again,” the Couses looked else- like the ranch. This little place takes his little wagon and gets where for a place where Indians and is Cleveland [Washington] a load of fruit etc. and goes to sheep could be found. After hearing just as near as you could find it town with Grandpa to sell it.11 about Taos from his friend, Ernest reproduced anywhere.12 Catherine Purvine Walker died in Blumenschein, Couse quickly made Two weeks later, she reported: February 1901, and although Couse plans to spend the summer there. These Indians are fine and had planned to return to Etaples Soon afterwards, a bemused Virginia [Couse] has two of the finest that summer, the depths of his wrote to her sister from Tres Piedras, models among them posing for wife’s grief caused him to change his New Mexico: him. He has half a dozen pictures mind. He concluded that it would be You will be astonished I imagine begun already. . . . [he] has the better for the family to spend their to see where this is written finest opportunity here to study summer months in Washington from. It is a little mining town the Indians he has ever had. . . State. Their 1901 stay was brief but & railroad station in New . the men are over six feet some it allowed Couse to paint The Peace Mexico away up in the Rocky of them and simply fine and they Pipe, a work that won him a First Mountains. . . . Mr. Couse got pose without their clothes, just Hallgarten Prize at the National desperate about two weeks ago the breech cloth as Mr. Couse Academy of Design in 1902. to get somewhere and get to likes to paint them.13

13 As summer 1903 approached, Virginia again longed for home but the Couses instead returned to Taos. They did not visit the ranch again until 1904, after the death of Bolivar Walker. By March of that year, their summer plans were in place: “We will go to the ranch first and plan the rest of the summer while we are there. We have so many things planned to do. Mr. Couse wants to get a lot of work done and then in Oct. or November go to Portland and have an exhibi- tion in the Library building.”14 Life at the Walker Ranch in the absence of Bolivar and Catherine Walker was noticeably different. In addition to the change of familial structure, the challenges of life in summer 1904 were exacerbated by a lack of household help, a stretch of unusually hot weather, a water shortage and fleas. Virginia said:

Mr. Couse said this morning that The Cayuse, 1901, oil on canvas, 20⅜" x 24⅜"; Courtesy of Robert and Marcia Childers without doubt it was the dirtiest place we had ever found in all our wanderings. It seems worse to me than it ever did before. I suppose it is because it is so hot. I never saw such heat here before & so much of it—& the water!! It is awful. It is full of pigs and chickens until it is not fit to wash one’s face in let alone use.15 Following several months of paint- ing on and around the ranch, Couse’s work was shown in Portland in early October 1904. Twenty-four paint- ings appeared in a week-long display in the Portland Library Building, in an exhibition hosted by the Portland Art Association. The assembled works included small images reflect- ing the artist’s interest in twilight and atmosphere, paintings from Lighting the Campfire, 1901, watercolor on paper, 18" x 29"; Courtesy of The Couse coastal France, several Southwestern Foundation

14 Eanger Irving Couse on the Columbia River works and three Columbia River sub- jects—A Yakima Hunter, A Klickitat Camp and On the Ranch. Although they did not know it, the Couse family’s summer 1904 visit to the Walker Ranch was their last one. Virginia continued to have high hopes that she would return for another season but in 1906, the Portland & Seattle Railway began constructing a line along the north bank of the Columbia River. The new railroad ran squarely through the Walker’s “river ranch” at the mouth of Chapman Creek.16 Virginia was obligated to sell her inherited share in that property and assigned the money she received to buying a mon- ument for her parents’ graves. After Klickitat Camp at Night, 1904, oil on canvas, 14" x 18"; From the George R. Stroemple Nelson Purvine died in 1911, she Collection wrote to Fan, “It makes me sick to Klickitat Camp at Night was among the paintings included in Couse’s 1904 exhibit in the think I never will see the ranch again. Portland Library Building. I wonder if they will be able to sell it . . . It is just as well that Uncle Nelse did not make a will or at least it does not matter now.”17 The May 1917 issue of Fine Arts Journal includes an essay titled “Taos and the Indian in Art.” It begins with the comment, “One phase of the much-heralded and long-desired American art would, at last seem to have made its appearance with the many successful paintings of the aborigines by the Taos colony of art- ists and those who visit them.”18 By this time, Couse was a regular summer resident of Taos, owner of a home there and president of the Taos enabled him to fulfill his unique Indian Women and Traveling Lodges, Society of Artists. He had devoted vision. Although he is now popularly c. 1904; Courtesy nearly three decades to producing associated with Taos and its art col- of the Couse Family Archive “strictly American” works and these ony, the time he spent in the dry hills This photograph efforts came to full fruition in the above the Columbia River helped was used by Couse as the Southwest. There, he was surround him articulate the ideas that provide compositional by picturesque landscape, architec- him a prominent place within the basis for his work, Klickitat Camp ture and people and colleagues who pantheon of American artists. at Night.

15 Indian man on White Prince

16 Eanger Irving Couse on Whitmanthe Columbia Rionver White Prince Going to the mountains

Baking bread in the mountains, Mr. Couse with Whitman & Uncle Smiley

W.B. & Catherine Walker with Virginia (right) & Fanny & her boys

17 Whitman in the Studio with his grandparents

Whitman picking watermelons

18 Eanger Irving Couse on the Columbia River Feeding geese, Studio in the distance

Drying straw at the ranch

Whitman at the River Ranch with Mary & Ruth Walker

19 Notes 13. Virginia Walker Couse to Frances Walker Acknowledgments Kamm, 12 June 1902, L192:2, CF. 1. Virginia Walker Couse to Smiley Purvine, The following made significant 2 August 1905, L233:2, The Couse 14. Virginia Walker Couse to Frances Walker contributions to Eanger Irving Foundation, Taos, NM (hereafter CF). Kamm, 30 March 1904, L225:2–3, CF. Couse on the Columbia River: 2. Virginia Jane Walker to Wellington 15. Virginia Walker Couse to Frances Walker Bolivar and Catherine Purvine Walker, Kamm, 22 July 1904, L227:3, CF. Virginia Couse Leavitt and 23 February 1889, L100:16, CF. Ernie Leavitt, Leesha Alston, 16. Given Couse’s long-term relationship 3. Eanger Irving Couse to Frances with the Santa Fe Railway, it is both fit- Andy Anderson, Ana Archuleta, Walker Kamm, 25 November 1889, ting and ironic that the original Portland Christa Barleben, Megan Benitz, RD118a:2–3, CF. & Seattle Railway line that ran across the Kelly Rushing Carter, Tom Fuller, 4. Virginia Walker Couse to Frances Walker Walker’s “river ranch” is now part of the BNSF Railway network. Taffy Gould, Christina Grafe, Kamm, 20 July 1891, L152:2–3, CF. Roy Grafe, Michael Howell, 17. Virginia Walker Couse to Frances Walker 5. DeWitt McClellan Lockman, “Interview William Johnson, Liz Kingslien, with Eanger Irving Couse,” 11 March Kamm, 30 October 1911, L269:5, CF. 1927, 20, DeWitt McClellan Lockman 18. Evelyn Marie Stuart, “Taos and the Nina Olsson, Juris Sarins, Papers, Biographical Files of Artists, Indian in Art,” Fine Arts Journal 35.5 Colleen Schafroth, Linda Tesner, Books and Art, Haley Memorial Library (May 1917): 341. Laura Thayer, Bruce VanLandingham, and History Center, Midland, TX. Ken Weeks, Geoff Wexler, 6. The miles given are approximate over- Further Reading Jan Wilson and Tim Young. land distances to the agencies at Warm Fisher, Andrew H. Shadow Tribe: The Making Springs, Oregon, and Fort Simcoe, Thanks also to Framing Resource of Columbia River Indian Identity. Seattle: and Sign Wizards. Washington. Center for the Study of the Pacific 7. Virginia Walker Couse to Frances Walker Northwest in association with University Kamm, 12 September 1891, L153:4, CF. of Washington Press, 2010. 8. Virginia Jane Walker to Frances Walker Grafe, Steven L. Peoples of the Plateau: The Copyright © 2013 Maryhill Museum of Art Kamm, 16 August 1889, L109:6, CF. Indian Photographs of Lee Moorhouse, All rights reserved under International and 1898-1915. Norman: University of 9. Virginia Walker Couse to Frances Walker Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No Oklahoma Press, 2005. Kamm, 10 November 1892, L154:5, CF. part of this publication may be reproduced, Hunn, Eugene S., and James Selam. Nch’i- stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted 10. DeWitt McClellan Lockman, “Interview wána, “The Big River”: Mid-Columbia in any form by any means, electronic, with Eanger Irving Couse,” 26 May Indians and Their Land. Seattle: mechanical, photocopying, recording, 1927, 21, Interviews of Artists and University of Washington Press, 1990. or otherwise, except brief extracts for Architects Associated with the National the purpose of review, without written Karson, Jennifer. Wiyáxaỵ xt/wiyáakạ ảaw/ Academy of Design, 1926–1927, permission of the publisher. Microfilm Reels 502–504, Archives of As Days Go By: Our History, Our Land, American Art, Smithsonian Institution, and Our People—The Cayuse, Umatilla, ISBN: 978-0-9617180-2-2 Washington, DC. and Walla Walla. Pendleton: Tamástslikt Published in the United States by: Cultural Institute, 2006. 11. Virginia Walker Couse to Wellington Maryhill Museum of Art Bolivar and Catherine Purvine Walker, 5 Leavitt, Virginia Couse. Eanger Irving Couse: 35 Maryhill Museum Drive August 1900, L174:1–2, CF. Image Maker for America. Albuquerque: Goldendale, Washington 98620 Albuquerque Museum, 1991. maryhillmuseum.org 12. Virginia Walker Couse to Frances Walker Kamm, undated [May 1902], Neils, Selma M. The Klickitat Indians. L190:1–2, CF. Portland, OR: Binford & Mort Publishing, 1985. Cleveland, Washington, is located about twenty miles due north of where the Schlick, Mary Dodds. Columbia River Walker Ranch was situated. Basketry: Gift of the Ancestors, Gift of the Earth. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994.

20 Eanger Irving Couse on the Columbia River Contributors to the exhibition: Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center The Couse Foundation Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art Maryhill Museum of Art Oregon Historical Society Research Library Phoenix Art Museum Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture & Lifeways, Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan Robert and Marcia Childers The Couse Family Coburn L. Grabenhorst, Jr. Liliane and Christian Haub Frank and Susan Jackson Virginia Couse Leavitt Glenn and Judith Mason, CULTURAL IMAGES The George R. Stroemple Collection TheEanger Irving Couse on the Columbia River exhibition was made possible by the generous support of: BNSF Railway Foundation Puget Sound Energy The Brim Family Kate Mills Coburn L. Grabenhorst, Jr. Sayler’s Old Country Kitchen Mary Dodds Schlick JD Fulwiler & Co. Insurance The Wheelhouse Family Publication design: Liz Kingslien and Steve Grafe Photography: Roy Grafe Cover: Eanger Irving Couse (1866–1936), Walker Ranch (detail), 1896-98, oil on canvas; Courtesy of The Couse Foundation Inside cover: Eanger Irving Couse in his New York Studio, c. 1900; Courtesy of the Couse Family Archive Walker Ranch Photo Album: The photos on pages 16–19 show activities on and around the Walker Ranch. They were taken by Eanger Irving Couse and Virginia Walker Couse between 1891–1904; Courtesy of the Couse Family Archive.

Copyright © 2013 Maryhill Museum of Art All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, elec- tronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except brief extracts for the purpose of review, without written permission of the publisher. ISBN: 978-0-9617180-2-2 Published in the United States by: Maryhill Museum of Art 35 Maryhill Museum Drive Goldendale, Washington 98620 maryhillmuseum.org